|
Prospect Park West: A Novel |  | Author: Amy Sohn
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $13.95
as of 11/24/2009 09:46 CST details
You Save: $11.05 (44%)
New (26) Used (15) Collectible (2) from $12.99
Seller: Orla's Books
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 27534
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416577637
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781416577638
ASIN: 1416577637
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
BROOKLYN'S FAMED PARK SLOPE neighborhood has it all: sprawling, majestic Prospect Park; acclaimed public schools; historic brownstones; and progressive values. Among bohemian bourgeois breeders, claiming a stake in Park Slope has become a competitive sport.In the park, at the coffee shops, and on the playgrounds of the neighborhood, four women's lives come together during one long, hot Brooklyn summer. Melora Leigh, a two-time Oscar-winning actress, frustrated with her career and the pressures of raising her adopted toddler, feels the seductive pull of kleptomania; Rebecca Rose, missing the robust sex life of her pre-motherhood days, begins a dangerous flirtation with a handsome neighborhood celebrity; Lizzie O'Donnell, a former lesbian (or "hasbian"), wonders why she is still drawn to women in spite of her sexy husband and adorable baby; and Karen Bryan Shapiro finds herself consumed by two powerful obsessions: her four-year-old son's well-being and snagging the ultimate three-bedroom apartment in a wellmaintained, P.S. 321-zoned co-op building. As the women's paths intertwine (and sometimes collide), each must struggle to keep her man, her sanity...and her playdates. From the perennially hot author and columnist Amy Sohn comes a smart, sexy, satirical peek into the bedrooms and hearts of Prospect Park West.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
 One dimensional caricatures, not satire November 21, 2009
BrooklynReader (Brooklyn, NY)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book hoping to find a fun trashy novel that takes place in my long-time neighborhood. What I found were caricatures instead of characters, mentions of local spots (restaurants, shops) that felt more like product placement rather than setting a scene, and a ludicrous series of irritating intertwined plot lines. If this is an example of Amy Sohn at her best, she is not a good fiction writer at all. Her characters are all just a bunch of details strung together (clothes, hair, schools, type of apartments, prejudices). It was as if Jackie Collins had written a book about Park Slope, and not in a good way.
 Sex in The City meets Bonfires of the Vanities and we lose! November 21, 2009
Brooklyn girl (Brooklyn, N.Y. United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hate writing bad reviews, however, this is the only one I could give to this book.
The only character who had any merit was Manz's Grandmother and even she was poorly developed!
It was an exposure of all of the negatives of my dear Brooklyn and showed absolutely none of the wonderful aspects of it. Amy, Brooklyn is a very nurturing and exciting place. I wish you would visit!
It was almost like Sex in The City meets Bonfire of the Vanities but no one wins! Try again! You are obviously a very gifted writer and your style of writing was descriptive and wonderful but you need to achieve a balance! Not everyone is bad!!!
A Page Turner... But Yuck November 13, 2009
LaLex (Brooklyn, NY)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was the first book of Amy Sohn's I had read. I live in Brooklyn, so I couldn't wait to read this book. Prospect Park West, or "the Gold Coast," as one of Sohn's characters puts it, truly IS beautiful. When you walk down the avenue, gazing out on the park, your eye naturally wanders up to the brownstones that line the avenue and wonder... what's it like to live there?
While it was a page turner-- she really has a cruelly addictive gossip-y style-- the book left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I'm convinced what went on in this novel was just a fantasy Sohn cooked up because she was bored and saw Park Slope as an easy target-- she obviously has the same love/hate relationship her character Rebecca Rose mentions on the very first page.
Pros: I enjoyed the ethnological descriptions of Park Slope (I used to live in nearby Windsor Terrace). The stroller traffic, the organic craze, the nannies taking care of kids whose moms don't have jobs-- that part is real!
Cons:
--The many randomly placed exaggerated racial incidents in the book.
--The book is full of characters you don't have anything in common with, or know anyone like, and worst of all, even WANT to know anyone like. When you watch them crash and burn, you don't really care.
Bottom Line: read it if you live in Brooklyn or NY; if not, skip it.
Disappointing November 9, 2009
EB (New York, New York United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Disjointed. Characters who are over the top and not in a good way. Stupid ending.
what a mess November 6, 2009
Joya (New York)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The premise of the book is great and and first glance I could see why SJP would consider it a great find for TV but the meat of the story... well it's like when you get a soy hot dog... as much as it seems to be legit it's just not real meat.
The writing was all over the place and not very easy to follow which I think is the only thing that makes it not chick lit; you have to pay attention, and not in a good way. There are so many characters that when Sohn goes off on tangents (they're convieniently italicized so that you recognize them) it just adds to the confusion and adds little if anything to the story.
As far as the characters themselves... their stories were shallow and plain ridiculous. They all make very bad and selfish decisions and really are a bunch of well financed complainers. There's no resolution in any of the stories. At all. As far as the celebrities in the book... the placements were just a plain corney. But it got their attention so I guess that's a win for Sohn.
The racial tension in the book isn't really even tension. It's more white people making gross stereotypes and assumptions about black people. For some of the situations it's almost like the book was completely written and she thought "I need more racism" and added a bunch of scenes that are honestly disconnected from the stories. And some of the statements she has the characters make are downright insulting and a little TOO well thought out if you ask me. If I were to meet Amy Sohn it would definitely be with one eyebrow raised. I'm can already forsee myself unconciously eyeing people suspiciously next time I stroll through Park Slope wondering what they think about me; and that's not a good feeling.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
|
|
|
|
Return to Math.com | |
